Stone Wool As A Substrate

HortiPro and Saint-Gobain CultilÃ¨ne, a Netherlands-based substrate company, recently joined forces, making CultilÃ¨ne’s stone wool substrates more easily available to U.S. growers.

Martin Boerema, who’s a senior consultant with HortiPro, is in charge of technical support for CultilÃ¨ne here in the United States. Propagators, cut flower growers and high-tech vegetable producers are among the growers stone wool substrates make sense, Boerema says.

Stone wool products are also among HortiPro’s product offerings, which include cocopeat, bark and other growing media.

A new educational video that provides information on the horticultural industry’s essential role in bee and pollinator stewardship is one result of industry collaboration by the Horticultural Research Institute, AmericanHort, Society of American Florists and the American Floral Endowment. “Protecting Bees & Pollinators: What Horticulture Needs to Know,” narrates the current state of bee and pollinator health, provides information on factors that impact pollinators and the environment and underscores the beneficial role horticulture plays in providing healthy pollinator ecosystems.

Vegetable breeding companies will come together this August to host the Summer Vegetable Trials in California. Like the long-standing California Spring Trials that are held annually in California, attendees will have the opportunity to visit breeding companies' trial sites in seven locations throughout the state, from August 20-21, 2015. National Garden Bureau (NGB), the non-profit organization promoting gardening on behalf of the horticulture industry, is organizing and publicizing this event on behalf of its members.

DNA Green Group and Riknplant have finalized DNA Green Group's acquisition of Rijnplant, meaning that the breeding and propagation activities in pot and cut anthurium, bougainvillea and heliconia will transfer to DNA Green Group.

The harvest season has been challenging, according to the Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss Association (CSPMA), with lower-than-expected harvest of peat moss across most production regions in Canada, due primarily to adverse weather conditions across the country.

In the last of a four-article series highlighting the production and use of pine wood chips as aggregates in greenhouse substrates, the researchers found growers do not need to adjust their production practices when 20 percent pine wood chips are used as a perlite replacement.

In the first of a four article series highlighting the use of pine wood chips as alternative aggregates to perlite in greenhouse substrates, researchers from North Carolina State University discuss the processing and physical properties of pine wood chips.

Electrical conductivity (EC) and pH, as well as water alkalinity, have the biggest effects on nutrient availability. Learn how to keep track of them through three common methods for better monitoring in the greenhouse.

The Acme Group recently announced its new line of recyclable Agrifabrics and plant plug substrate, PlugEase. The products make recycling affordable for greenhouse growers, farmers and horticulturalists.

Berger, a producer of growing mixes, has acquired Beaver Peat Moss & Lafaille Peat Moss, consolidating a long-standing relationship between the companies. The transaction is effective on November 1, 2013. Under the agreement, Serge Lafaille, Beaver & Lafaille Peat Moss’ president, will join Berger’s sales team in order to ensure an easy transition for his current customers. “I am proud to join Berger’s team; we have the same business and growing philosophy, as well as a relentless commitment to being close to our customers in order to offer them what they truly need,” Lafaille says. Berger and Beaver & Lafaille Peat Moss have been partners since 1986. “For Berger, this transaction is a natural evolution of the strong relationship we’ve created with Beaver & Lafaille Peat Moss throughout the past 27 years,” says Berger CEO Claudin Berger. Located in St-Modeste, Quebec, Berger provides growing media and peat moss to professional […]

Horticulture students from Olds College in Alberta, Canada, are investigating the viability of using bio char as a soil additive for greenhouse-grown crops. The group includes Emily Stanley, Michael Templeton and Heather Hood. Olds has a very good horticulture program, and I graduated from the greenhouse program there in 1996. Because of my involvement in the program, the group approached me to be a mentor for the study. In this role, I had conference calls with the group every two weeks to discuss the status of the project and offer any insight from a professional grower’s perspective. Bio char is a product derived from a special burning process of organic matter with limited amounts of oxygen. This holds the carbon in the organic matter. When the process is finished, you have a bio char product that can be used as a soil amendment. The students conducted trials on tomatoes and […]

Premier Tech Horticulture, which is among the North American leaders of peat moss-based growing media production and distribution, has recently announced the launch of its social media strategy, including the unveiling of its Pro-Mix Facebook, Twitter and YouTube pages for professional and amateur gardeners. Known as a customer-focused and market-driven company, Premier Tech Horticulture strongly believes that today, people are expecting constant interactive communication with brands. As a result, interacting and communicating with external audiences through both new and traditional media remain important elements. Now, with Pro-Mix, this dialogue will also take place online, via new social media platforms that are easy to access for everybody. “These Pro-Mix social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, blogs, wikis, YouTube, etc.) present us with unique opportunities to listen to our customers and stakeholders, but also to share with people our 20 years of experience, knowledge and expertise,” says Chantal Duchesneau, marketing and […]

Coir Chunk Media–A Good Choice For Long-Term CropsTuesday, June 11 at 2 p.m. Eastern, 11 a.m. Pacific Click here to register for this webinar. Growing media manufacturers are looking for new components that can be added to their growing media to improve physical properties and address common problems that the grower and/or end user face. One such problem the homeowner experiences with peat-based growing medium in hanging baskets and long term-planters is that they are hard to re-wet with water after they have dried out. Join Horticulture Specialist Troy Buechel on Tuesday, June 11 at 2 p.m. Eastern, 11 a.m. Pacific for this informative webinar to learn how Premier Tech Horticulture is addressing this issue with a new growing medium called PRO-MIX HP-CC. This product contains a unique coir chunk that does not require a wetting agent to wet and helps to hold water while maintaining good air porosity. Find out […]

Professional growers and experienced gardeners have known it for ages: the secret to healthy plants and ultimately, great gardens, begins with excellent soil. Now, that knowledge is being adopted more widely by the average home gardener. To further that knowledge, Premier Tech Horticulture is promoting the idea of creating a $10 hole for a $1 plant using the eight growing mixes in the PRO-MIX line, formulated for a variety of gardening needs. “We’ve developed a variety of soil solutions from organic growing mixes and potting mixes to specialized planting mixes,” says Chantal Duchesneau, marketing and communications director for Premier Tech Horticulture. “Most of the mixes include an all-natural ingredient, MycoActive, a form of mycorrhizae that stimulates a plant’s root system to take up more nutrients and water to improve health and growth.” Two of the PRO-MIX products are: PRO-MIX Ultimate Garden Mix, which is suitable for outdoor plants and vegetables, […]